Although it doesn't get properly dark at this time of year, there are three planets on view in the twilight: Jupiter very high in the West and Mars and Saturn low in the South.I went out last night at around 11pm, and set up my TS70ED refractor on an old Tasco GoTo mount (which I've recently upgraded with a new Celestron V4 hand-control). It was my first view of Mars & Saturn this year, and even though they are very low in the sky, I ended up using my 6.5mm eyepiece with a x2 Barlow-lens (giving a magnification of 130x) to get my best view.

And I was also testing a pair of Canon 10x30 image-stabilised binoculars. I had a look at the constellation of Lyra, which includes a number of bright double-stars. These were none too clear at x10 magnification hand-held, but once I pushed the button the whole star-field became rock-steady and quite a few faint stars appeared which I hadn't seen without the IS function. I'm looking forward to trying these in a dark sky!

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum